Economy

As the Seattle-area real estate market has slowed over the past year, it's clear things have gotten better for buyers of the region's priciest homes. But people looking for anything resembling affordable housing haven't had the same luck.

Whether through greater investments in technology and talent, or streamlining back-end processes to improve the decision-making process, mortgage servicers are doing more to prioritize borrowers. Here's a look at seven of these borrower-focused initiatives and how they're reshaping mortgage servicing.

The conventional market recaptured a lot of the first-time homebuyers it lost during the financial crisis, but service members instead have increasingly stuck with loans insured by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Arch Capital’s next offering of credit risk transfer notes features heavy exposure to residential mortgages that have been modified by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.

Fannie Mae's serious delinquency rate stood firm for the third month running, adding to evidence that it has hit a floor after dropping for most of the past year.

Freddie Mac again increased its origination forecast for the next two years, as the rate drops of the past few months are expected to boost refinance volume.

New York's Amazon dreams aren't dead yet, at least not in the minds of some of its leading executives and politicians.

Connecticut's real estate market was hit hard in January, with single-family home sales hitting their lowest level for the month in a decade, according to the Warren Group.

For a few months, it seemed the speeding Bay Area housing market was ready to slow down.

The U.S. homeownership rate rose to the highest level since 2014, led by a growing share of buyers in their mid-30s and early 40s.

The new regulation, codifying requirements already in practice, is meant to help the mortgage giants prepare for the adoption of a uniform security in June.

Financing poured into purchasing homes to flip in 2018, reaching the highest total since 2007, according to Attom Data Solutions.

Toll Brothers Inc.'s new home orders dropped 24% in the fiscal first quarter, the steepest annual decline for the biggest U.S. luxury homebuilder since the depths of the housing crash in 2010.

Figure, the startup headed by Mike Cagney, uses blockchain technology to provide home equity loans in as little as five days. It intends to use the newly raised funds to offer other services, including wealth management.

San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer thinks his city has said "no" to housing for too long.

Altisource Portfolio Solutions recorded multimillion-dollar net losses in the fourth quarter and the full year for 2018, due to the reduction of the Ocwen Financial servicing portfolio and other repositioning activities.

Being too dependent on the automated underwriting tools created by the government-sponsored enterprises to originate loans underlying private-label mortgage-backed securitizations could negatively affect their credit quality, a report from Moody's said.

If confirmed to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Mark Calabria would have a central role in any efforts to reform the government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

Home values are on the rise this year for a majority of Pima County, Ariz., homeowners, but it's too early to tell whether that will lead to a similar increase in their property tax bills.

Policymakers could improve independent mortgage banks' financial stability by giving these companies improved access to liquidity, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.